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North Africa Topics specific to North Africa and the Sahara down to the 17th parallel (excludes Morocco)
Photo by Sean Howman, The Pamir highway in an unseasonably cold late October, Tajikistan

I haven't been everywhere...
but it's on my list!


Photo by Sean Howman,
The Pamir highway in an unseasonably
cold late October, Tajikistan



Trans Sahara Routes.

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  #1  
Old 10 Sep 2009
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Living With Al-qaeda: The Robert Fowler Story
First part, the second to be aired tonight on Canadian television

130 days in captivity

Also

Fowler relives gritty details of kidnapping - The Globe and Mail
"Robert Fowler says he was betrayed."
“I know somebody shopped me,” Mr. Fowler told the CBC. “Who could it be?”
He speculated that it could have been “the government of Niger” or some sort of “al-Qaeda sympathizer” in the UN who gave him up. “All of them had my agenda – my itinerary.”
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Old 11 Sep 2009
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Don't wave the maple leaf...
Fowler is home – but Canada's mission isn't over - The Globe and Mail

A new story, apparently we want to charge MBM et al. under our anti-terror legislation.

The story puts him squarely behind the 2003 Algerian kidnappings too. It has been interesting to see how the media here - who never have anything on the Sahara or francophone West Africa - have reported on this.
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Old 11 Sep 2009
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It was also interesting to read the details of their detention.
Where they went, how they were treated, what they ate, who the hidnappers were, how they communicated, how they spent their days.
When they went north to make cell phone calls, that would have been near Tin Zahouatine probably? Or are there öther places near the Algerian border where they could have reception?

It may prove cheaper for the Western governments to go after MBM and finish AQIM off, rather then paying further ransoms and/or having their citizens beheaded. Perhaps Edwin Dyer's fate will make it politically feasible and was in that case a mistake by the AQIM.

Fowler indicated quite clearly that he thought the Niger president Tandja was behind the kidnapping.
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Old 15 Sep 2009
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Interesting to watch all that. It's odd that he initially thought it was the MNJ who had grabbed him and not the more obvious AQIM who he must have known about.

Or are there öther places near the Algerian border where they could have reception?

Ikhalil south of Bordj Moktar but in Mali works, that's why it's there - but I imagine Tin Z is more likely in this instance.

Funny to see the name of MBM mentioned too. There have been so many other stories about him over the years, I sometimes forget he's apparently the mastermind behind it all.

Ch
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